The Concordia Student Union discussed student appointments, the upcoming byelections and the ongoing issues with information technology services during a regular council meeting Wednesday.
Two weeks ago, Councillor Ramy Khoriaty announced his resignation from Senate in light of the lack of undergraduate representation from the John Molson School of Business.
Contrary to his statement however, Khoriaty did not officially step down from his spot by sending a letter of resignation to the council chair. Citing midterms, Khoriaty said he simply forgot to submit the letter and would do so soon.
Schubert Laforest, president of the CSU, expressed interest in appointing VP academic of the Commerce and Administration Students’ Association, Tuan Dinh, but council immediately voiced their concerns regarding his repeated absence during interviews.
Chairperson Jean-François Ouellet then refused to allow a motion to appoint JMSB student and applicant, Melissa Lemieux, to Senate. According to Ouellet, a student cannot be nominated for the position until Khoriaty submits his letter of resignation to the chair. Therefore, Senate will not have a JMSB student representative for its third meeting of the year this coming Friday.
Furthermore, a contentious council disagreed over the suggestion to open the executive position of VP academic and advocacy next month. Many councillors expressed discomfort with the current situation of dividing the position among the current executive, while those same executives felt it was crucial to help them function as a whole.
“Keep in mind we’re asking someone to work full-time and this is not an easy task. It takes time, and it doesn’t mean it’s going to happen,” said VP external Simon-Pierre Lauzon. “The other risk is that this person comes on the team, and does not actually work with us.”
Senator Chuck Wilson argued that “one portfolio is enough” and that Lauzon would be unable to fulfill his own duties if he was also taking on additional work.
The motion to open the position for applicants during the byelections passed.
Council also addressed the recurrent problems with the information technology service and went forward with the decision to hire councillor and former VP finance, Jordan Lindsay, to investigate the hardware issue.
Council was divided over the notion of hiring a company to do a massive overhaul of the IT services, something that a visibly frustrated Laforest argued was necessary for his executive to function.
“You’re asking us to do all this stuff with our hands tied behind our back,” said Laforest. “The fact of the matter is that a decision needs to be made immediately.”
Laforest explained that waiting another two months to choose which company will remedy the situation will only cost the CSU more since it is losing money on funding a dysfunctional system.
It was decided that an open-tender process would be used for the website documents and management despite the wishes of the executives to hire a company immediately.
